Shdes of Grey
by Anuabyss
Summary: A civil war is brewing between the kingdoms. To prepare for the inevitable conflict, Ozpin increased enrolment at Beacon and admits a host of students from different backgrounds. Follow team Shde as they work their way into the RWBY universe. OC focused with camos from canon characters. Rated M for violence and strong language.


A/N: The bold words are similar to words that appear before the white/black/yellow trailers. The words in italic are the lyrics to the song that goes along with the character.

Also, this my first fan fic. I would appreciate it if you guys could review and let me know how I can improve my writing. Thanks!

Disclaimer: RWBY rights are owned by Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. Original characters and plot belong to Anuabyss.

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><p><strong><span>Shade Trailer: Zeus's Gift<span>**

**Marinating in Satan's sweat, take a sip of this holy water; hope god still keeps me blessed, as I use this dark shield for my armour.**

He got up from one knee as he heard an audible thud. The upper half of the body he just severed fell to the ground. A look of surprise was etched across its lifeless face. He never saw it coming thought Shade. But then again, they never do.

He connected the two hilts of his twin swords – Styx and Acheron – and collapsed his weapons to an easier method of transportation. As he placed the portable weapon on his back, he did a quick scan around the garden. Blood dripped off the beautiful landscaped hedges and rare flowers. Bodies were littered everywhere and it was all his handy work.

A chill ran up his spine and his soul shivered. It was regret. He silenced the feeling of cognitive dissonance with his logical reasoning. The security guards knew that losing their lives was a possibility he thought. It was a part of their job description. These people knew what they were getting themselves into. They had their jobs and he had his. Robbery, kidnapping, murder – they were all just jobs. None of this was personal he tired to convince himself. He picked up the ID card hanging off the neck of his most recent kill. It read Colombo Madison.

The cloudy sky above him cleared for a moment and the shattered moon reflected off the light armour that covered his forearms, shoulders and chest. The moonlight ceased to shine when it reached the top of his body. Covering his head was an opaque hood that prevented any visibility on his face.

"You always make it personal" he heard from the bud in his ear. As the moonlight continued to shine down on him, it was almost as if it illuminated the inner workings of his mind. She knows me too well Shade thought. He sighed and looked to the north. He couldn't see her, but he knew she was somewhere out there.

His partner was located on a northern hill overlooking the estate. She was lying on her stomach, peering into her sniper rifle. Dressed in leather armour, his partner wore an identical hood to one he was wearing.

"The back of the estate is clear," he said changing the topic. "What's the reading inside the mansion?" As she looked through her sniper rifle, she turned on its inferred vision.

"Four guards are stationed in the lobby on the first level," she said. His partner raised her sniper rifle to the next floor. "Another four are on the second." She raised her weapon a final time. "There are… eleven on the third, stationed in front what looks like a study at the front of the estate."I think it's safe to say our objective is in there."

Looking at the back of the mansion, Shade starred upwards. "I need to see the study before I can port inside of it."Sounding disappointed, his partner responded "Looks like it's going to be a long night at the office." Shade frowned. If only they were so lucky he thought.

"When were done putting in our overtime, I think we need to pay a visit to our old friend Jack Daniels," she said smiling to herself at the suggestion. "Agreed, but Focus P" he said sternly."I need you to stay tight, watch my bad side."

"Of course, watching your left," she said dutifully. "Be my eyes in their P," said Shade. "Sync in three, two, one." "Sync!" they both said simultaneously.

Shade moved silently towards the Mansion. He deployed Styx and Acheron in their short sword forms. The dual wielder leaned against the side of the estate as he peered into one its substantially large windows. The dinning room he thought. "You see the threshold to your left" he heard in his ear. A guard is about to enter the room. "Port to the room's threshold on my signal… Now!"

**_The devil let me in but he'll pray to god to take me back._**

As Shade activated his semblance, the two tattoos on his shoulders – a coat of arms and an ankh - emitted a tyrian purple glow that shone through his armour. The glow ran from his tattoos in jagged lines towards his toes and fingertips. Within the second he vanished –leaving behind a cloud of dark smoke.

He reappeared inside the mansion behind the guard that just entered the room. A quick thrust of his white sword Styx and it was over before the guard realized what had happened. He grabbed the deceased by her shoulders and hid her body under the dinning room table. Better if we did this without alerting the other guards he thought.

"Safe to proceed to the hallway" he heard in his ear. "Stop by the last door on your left." He exited the dinning room's threshold and soundlessly ran down the large hallway. Its walls were decorated with portraits of the family's heritage. Old money Shade thought distastefully. In a more merciful world, there wouldn't be economic imbalances and his life might have taken a different direction.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard his partner say, "The main lobby is to your left." Shade slowly peered into the next room. "One guard is stationed by the stairs," informed his partner. He saw his target and vanished.

Appearing on the shoulders of the guard, shade raised his right sword, twirled it so it was facing downwards and penetrated his target's head. He dragged the body by its feet and hid it behind one of the large roman columns in the lobby. With the body hidden, he pulled Styx out his target.

"Stairs are clear," his partner said. He moved to the second floor. "Guard approaching on your left." He ducked into an empty room out of sight. As the guard walked by he placed his right hand on the guard's face and forced him into the room. With the black sword in his left hand, shade thought, your turn Acheron and subsequently slit the guard's throat. "Stairs to the third floor are at end of the hallway, it wont be clear for long MOVE" his partner screamed.

He hastily ran down the hallway and up the stairs to the third floor. "Eleven guards are stationed in front of the study; you'll have to take them out before they see you." He converted Styx and Acheron into their long sword forms and then re-connected them vertically to form a double-sided sword. Both blades were split down the middle by gun barrels. He reached the top of the stairs and then disappeared.

The guards had no time to react as he appeared directly below their eyesight. Shade slashed the two closest to him while simultaneously pressing the triggers located on the handle of his weapon. Two bullets flew in opposite directions, hitting their targets in the head. Four down he thought.

He vanished and re-appeared above three guards. Now in air, Shade fired his weapon and used the recoil from both ends to do a cartwheel through air. This allowed him to slice through his three targets.

While in the air, he pressed the trigger of his combined weapons again - eliminating another two guards. As he fell to the ground he separated his double-sided sword, landed on one knee and in one clean motion cut through the final guard. That took a total of ten seconds he thought.

Shade relaxed his stance and stood up. As he lowered his guard, P activated her semblance and fired. The sniper round moved through the estate's walls without making contact with any object until the bullet found it's home in the head of the eleventh guard.

Shade heard a light whoosh as her bullet sped pass the front of his face and into the guard about strike him down. That left eye is going to be the death of me he playfully thought. He looked to the north and knew that using her semblance from this distance must have taken a lot out of her. Wasting no time he vanished and entered the study.

**_I'll seek you out flay you alive. One more word and you wont survive. And I'm not scared of your stolen power. I see right through you any hour_**_._

With her back turned, his target stood in front of the largest window in the room. She was overlooking the front of the estate. "Dammit, it's not our primary objective," he said. An elderly woman turned around and gave him knowing nod. Although now aged, her features hinted at a once elegant appearance of attractiveness.

"P, it's just an old lady," he said disagreeably. Shade found it difficult to disconnect his private morality from this particular hit. "You know what happens if we fail, we can't go back empty handed!" his partner replied irritated.

The elderly women took a sip from the glass of red wine she held and looked her assassin up and down. "Well, you're not what I was expecting" she said coolly. She was wearing a light blue dress with a thigh high slit. Her right leg peeked out of the slit and clearly revealed a tattoo of a coat of arms on her ankle.

Fucking hell, she has the mark," he told his partner. An increasingly annoyed P said, "I don't care if she has the mark, we have a hit to finish."

"Your not one of them" interjected the old lady. As she stepped forward, her pale blue heels echoed against the marble floor of her study. "I assume they contracted your organization's services." Shade looked at her disbelievingly. "That's a nice way of putting they hired us to kill you" he replied. Unfazed, the elderly women said, "One must always remain tasteful, even in the most heinous of circumstances." Shade looked her right in the eye, trying to get a read on her. Oddly, she seemed to be taking her pending assassination really well.

As if reading his mind she said, "Your client has been rather persistent over the years." For the first time there was a hint of pain in her voice. "Slowly loosing those I was closest with has given me a lot of time to accept this inevitability."

She's not making this easy thought Shade. "If it's any conciliation, I'm sorry you have to pay for the sins of your son," he said. "Isn't that the fate of all women?" she retorted knowingly. The elderly women twirled her glass of red wine and stared at it in contemplation. "We were cursed since creation". Her eyes now met her assailant's glare. "Made to give birth, only to have our lives influenced by the decisions of our sons and husbands." Shade stood there in silence, reminded of his lost faith. "Genesis 3:16" he thought.

A sniper round passed through Shade without harming him and entered the elderly women's right thigh. Using her semblance again, his partner's endurance began to falter along with her aim.

"You're taking too long," said P talking through her teeth. "Finish her!" She screamed.

The elderly women, now collapsed on one knee said, "It's okay, I understand better than anyone else can." Shade hesitantly walked towards her. "I know you're just doing your job," she said. Curiously, the elderly woman was able to say the exact words he needed to hear. Continuing, the elderly women said, "Besides, I've experienced first hand what it's like to go home empty handed."

"Not the most pleasant of experiences" she reminiscently said. Reminded of their shared heritage he said, "Can I ask you one thing?" The old lady smirked and said, "You want to know how I got free."

She answered his inquiry by asking a question. "What is the one language on Remnant that everyone can understand?" It didn't take long for him to solve her riddle. "Lien" he answered.

"Our mutual friends in Vacuo are no different" she replied.

"Thank you" he said softly as he placed Styx and Acheron on the opposite sides of her shoulders. With her neck now in between an X, she asked, "Does it have to be this way?"

Shade could hear his patron's words echo in his head. "I'm sorry, our clients were very specific" he responded regrettably. "I suppose they want to send a message," said the women on death row. "I hope my granddaughters don't suffer the same fate because of my son."

Meeting her icy blue eyes, her assassin gently said "Goodbye." With one swift motion, her head now laid decapitated on the marble floor of her study. The crimson blood spilling on the ground matched the colour of her red wine that had spilt moments ago, when his partner had shot her.

_**How many sins? I lost count. How many sins? I'm running out.**_

As Shade looked outside the study's window, he activated his semblance. Before he disappeared, his coat of arms and ankh tattoos emitted a purple hue that extended to the ends of his body. He landed gracefully on the font yard, performing barrel roll to mitigate the impact. Once on the ground he broke into a sprint north.

Repentantly he thought, I think I've gone too far this time. She didn't deserve to die for the sins of her family. Shade began to consider what the elderly women had revealed moments before he killed her. She was free but her past caught up to her he thought. I guess P was right; Jehovah Jireh doesn't apply to people like us. While lost in thought, he failed to notice the lack of guards around the front yard.

As he approached P at her camping location, she lowered her hood revealing fox ears that pointed downward in anger. "You're a terrible hit man, you know that right?" said the fox faunus. "Yeah well this isn't exactly my dream job, " retorted Shade.

"I've never heard of a mercenary who had conversation with his target, before he killed it" mocked his partner. "Before I killed her," he said, as he looked her dead in her dark orange eyes.

Meeting his intense gaze, the fox fannus walked closer to him and put her left hand on his shoulder. "You know we didn't have a choice" she said to ease her partner. Despite her harsh demeanor, there was still good in P. She may not care for their targets, but she did care for him. Her touch lingered slightly longer than it should have.

As if suddenly aware of their slowness the male mercenary said, "We should get out of here." His partner released her grip and said, "yeah… this mission was waaay longer then it needed to be."

A bright light shone on the two partners. "FREEZE, don't move" said a voice behind the light. The mercenary reached for Styx and Acheron but was shot in the chest. Another bang rang out.

P had pushed him out of the way this time. She activated her semblance but was too slow for the first bullet. She was bleeding from her right shoulder when a third bang went off.

The shot flew right through her. Weakened from the mission, both mercenaries were unable to deflect the bullets with their auras.

Now aware of his misstep, Shade knew their opponents were the missing security from the front yard. I bet they called for reinforcements too he thought. On cue two tiltjet gunships arrived on the scene. Mini gun rounds began flying towards the duo. Shade quickly stepped in front of his partner and twirled his double side sword to deflect the onslaught of bullets.

"Get out of here" he screamed to his partner. Soldiers with the mark of Atlas jumped off the gunships. "I'll hold them off until you escape and then I'll port out." Doing her partner one last favour, the fox fannus sniped the headlight that shone on them. He gave his partner an appreciative glance as she left.

Suddenly, the night became still as the mini-guns overheated and stopped firing. All combatants were stunned by gunshots ringing in their ears and the smell of gunpowder that over flooded their sense of smell. Taking advantage of this moment of opportunity, the mercenary slammed one end of his double-sided sword into the ground and mustered all that was left of his aura.

Activating his semblance, his shoulder tattoos glowed purple, but this time he did not disappear. Instead, black smoke began to emit from his weapon. Within seconds, the battlefield was engulfed with smoke. Shade methodically took out his enemies while his smoke covered him. As the last solider fell to the ground, he noticed something strange attached to the front of a tiltjet. Two swords with tiny strings were providing support for something on the ground.

As he glanced forward he noticed an orange haired girl on one knee. She extended her arms forward towards rotating swords and a green beam flew towards him. He hardly had time to react as he twirled his double-sided sword in a vain attempt to block the attack. As he held his weapon in front of him he noticed his hands were covered in blood. Then it all went black.

_**They say clean your hands before you eat, rinse your sins with prayer. But I've done some things I don't think I can ever wash away.**_

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><p>AN: The lyrics for the trailer were pulled from songs and slightly modified to fit Shade's character. Let me know if you want a list of the songs I used. There is also a slight nod to RvB for all of you Roosterteeth fans out there.


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